you cannot continue to tax as if you're a small government country and spend as if you're a big government country. eventually that's going to come back and hit you. >> so this can last until march but in the meantime we can have another crisis and almost certainly will. january 15th is the next budget deadline. february 7th is when we need to raise the borrowing limit. when you were talking to those folks, how nervous are they about those deadlines? >> i think they're getting irritated as well as nervous. that makes a difference. you sit there and you're trying to make plans, you're trying to build a factory, you're trying to hire people. would you do that if you weren't quite sure what was going to happen in terms of the government, whether you're going to get hit, for instance, because there might be a demand to close the gap really quickly. well, who's going to -- who are they going to go for? they're going to go for business and that, i think, is a big thing. businesses react to consumers' confidence and they feed off each other. >> there have been some bright spots in the economy. st